Killers gouge out eyes of Jordanian driver

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Insurgents shot and killed a Jordanian truck driver in western Iraq yesterday and then gouged out his eyes and left his body on the side of the road, witnesses and police said.

The driver, identified as Ayid Nassir, a Jordanian father of two, was carrying supplies from Amman to Baghdad when he was attacked outside the town of Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad.

Reuters Television pictures showed at least seven bullet holes in the windshield of his yellow Mercedes truck and others in the body of the vehicle.

The driver was hit at least four times, including twice in the head and chest.

Pictures taken at a Ramadi hospital shortly after the attack showed that he had also had his eyes gouged out with a sharp instrument.

Truck drivers in Nassir's convoy said the mutilation took place after he was shot dead.

"The poor man. He was working for himself, just trying to make a living," a policeman at the scene said.

Truck drivers are regularly attacked on the desert highway from Jordan to Baghdad, which passes close to the towns of Ramadi and Fallujah, violent and insecure places essentially under the control of Sunni Muslim insurgents.

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US forces have a presence on the outskirts of Ramadi and Fallujah, but have avoided going into them since pulling back after a month of heavy urban clashes in April and early May.